I guess this is the transit equivalent of coming out to find your car up on blocks. The new version of the iconic Metro station pylon at the Bethesda Metro station installed last August has been totally stripped. All that's left is the interior frame that supports the familiar brown monolith. Well, if you always wondered what was inside the pylon, now you know.
83 comments:
Metrobound.
Can’t wait for the purple line to upgrade the quality of the people coming thru town
I don't see any concrete evidence.
The pylons are being revised to put back the horizontal red lines. Apparently WMATA revised their graphic standards to include both colored stripes and dots, and of course the color initials which I believe are being revised to a single letter.
Yes indeed! It will great to see more folks of all creeds, colors, and beliefs coming to our fair town to work, learn, play and maybe even live. It works both ways, so more folks from here can more easily travel by train to other places to shop, dine, learn, work and even live, and maybe more affordably than Bethesda. The new Purple Line will indeed upgrade the public realm of Bethesda! Thanks again for pointing this out to others that might be afraid of their own shadow.
Start hiding your valuables.
It will be reinforced!
3:54 is deluded by the fancy brochure those who spent 10B dollars need drones to believe. Take a walk through the PL tunnel off Wayne Ave after dark and say hi to all the future riders coming soon to Bethesda.
Honest to God, if we're going to dinner at Bethesda Row, I don't wear an expensive watch. Weekend mornings seem to be fine though. Mostly people who I would consider **gasp** too belong **gasp**.
Oh no, the sky is falling again in Bethesda. New signage on the way to help direct people to and from the Metro. I can’t wait to see those glorious MTA signs directing us to the Bethesda Purple Line Station, new signage for the new south entrance to the Bethesda Metro station and signage to direct all to a massive expansion of the Capital Crescent Trail. The times, they are a changing, and in my humble opinion, for the better.
Talking about cosmopolitan culture.
5:03 If you think Bethesda is scary and dangerous then you wouldn’t last a day in the rest of the country. It must be awful to live in fear in one of the safest places in the country.
The naked truth.
@ 5:03 PM I gather you're going for fast food there.
It will be akin to Around The World In Eighty Seconds!
How many times do we need to remind people that countless studies have proven that adding transit to an area does not increase crime, especially in areas that are already well served by transit. Enhancing transit for all has been proven to have a net benefit to the public realm. For example, any increased ease of access to an area by potential criminal activity is heavily offset by the improvements to the public realm of that same area like better access to housing, jobs, education, retail shops and restaurant's.
5:54 I hope we're all still alive when the Purple Line finally opens.
How many times do we need to remind people that these "studies" aren't the arms-length fact supported studies the shill for the council wishes they were. I suppose that transit in a vacuum with "projected" ridership makes those who just spent over 10 Billion dollars sleep well at night while actual figures from real world light rail projects have been an abysmal failure that requires consistent taxpayer subsidies. Put down the waterpipe, develop some integrity and quit making claims completely unsupported by real data.
12:18 PM I never claimed that the Purple Line was inexpensive. No heavy or light rail built in North America for decades, has been as affordable as many in the rest of the world. Once again, try to imagine DC without the extremely expensive and complicated heavy rail and 50% tunneled Metro system. If built today, it would dwarf the cost per mile of the Purple Line. But the DMV would be filled with hundreds of parking lots, parking decks all fed by massive new freeways. I feel the PL will be well used, and in my opinion is worth the mess, cost and time to build it. I also believe, and have posted numerous professional fact supported real data studies that disprove the commonly held NIMBY fear that transit increases crime.
Like this one :
https://t4america.org/2025/12/12/riders-safety-concerns-cant-be-dimissed-with-statistics/
And this one :
https://crim.sas.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/2015-14.0_Ridgeway_MacDonald_RailEffect%281%29.pdf
I hope most of us live at least until December of next year when the PL will open.
And this one that shows crimes against cars are 500 times more common that crimes against people using transit.
https://www.railpassengers.org/happening-now/news/blog/are-trains-and-transit-really-more-dangerous-the-data-say-no/
Scientific American has found that you are 17 times more likely to die in a fatal accident or murdered while in a car, compared to being killed in a train accident or murdered, based on the same miles traveled. Somebody gets murdered on a train, big national news, but somebody gets car jacked and shot or killed by a drunk driver, no big deal as it happens so often.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-public-transit-really-safer-than-driving/
The National Association of Realtors study show proximity to fixed-rail and BRT greatly increases real estate property despite NIMBY fear mongering.
https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/documents/the-real-estate-mantra-locate-near-public-transportation-10-14-2019.pdf
You can't see the forest for the trees.
The point is the purple line will serve as a catalyst to increase crime by making it convenient for perpetrators to come and go as they please.
@1:06 Sell that bridge to someone more gullible. Fact: Additional J2 busses would have accomplished the same thing for BILLIONS less AND doesn't use money this government doesn't have. The PL, like The Peninsula project in Baltimore will be and currently is an abysmal failure in terms of return on taxpayer dollars. Now Moore is pushing for the new Baltimore light-rail project heading into some of the worst parts of the city so you better get busy shilling for that future disaster.
I just don't get you guys proudly spending other people's money with abandon for really what is a vanity project and then bitch about Trump getting private money to pay for a ballroom. Self actualize once in a while and look in the mirror because the 30,000 foot view isn't pretty.
Where did they find it?
Indeed, they used this as a reference:
https://i.thriftbooks.com/api/imagehandler/m/AF8E702E471238A140641D8ECD7E9F31479CF417.jpeg
5:35 one 'little' mass outing coordinated with social media will be all it takes. Taking the infrequent bus over just has no panache. Wait and see! No need to remind me of the, literally, hundreds of times 'unforseen circumstances' should have been better thoughtout by libminded 'planners.'
@12:18, please share actual figures and which metrics you are referring to that deems transit projects a success or a failure. The only real failure I was able to find was the H St Street Car, which was a 2.2 mile project, with no direct transfers, and no dedicated lanes. Completely different scenario than the Purple Line.
@7:33 please explain how additional J2 busses will reach College Park and beyond? Also, how does additional busses relieve traffic congestion?
As for the Peninsula Project, it was approved for a $600 million bond deal, with less than $200 million issued, which is being paid by current revenue (https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/kevin-plank-exits-development-project-fate-baltimore-peninsula-uncertain-economic-impact). Sure, it Is under performing, but so is the Reflecting Pool.
And talking about other people's money, the ballroom costs are now projected at $600 million... With half coming from taxpayers (https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/06/16/records-reveal-600m-estimate-trumps-ballroom-project-with-half-taxpayers/).
Did you even read the link? It was a study based on publicly available crime and injury stats. You guys ask me to show you the data, but then dismiss any findings that do not support the commonly midheld belief that any form of transit enhancement is bad, probably because you don’t use it. Of course we all have to pay for public realm infrastructure improvements like more roads for folks too dumb to utilize a great transit network. We all pay for the insanity of suburban sprawl because of a few NIMBYs that fight adding density in existing places near transit. I don’t have any kids, but I don’t complain about a large part of my taxes going to education. I realize that it’s not just about me.
Another Robert Dyer post, another comment section filled with dogwhistles and NIMBY's crying about the thought of a non-white person existing.
@4:48 blatant dogwhistle
@8:51 and 4:08 more dogwhistles
Thirty comments in response to a report about a Metro sign?
That really is a pylon.
@7:33 you goofballs were crying just a few days ago about a bus lane. Don't try to act like you like buses now.
Speaking of Trump and spending other peoples money - that $300+ BILLION he's gifting to Iran as part of his unconditional surrender package could've built a lot of rail...
What do the Purple Line and the Reflecting Pool Reno have in common?
Two unwanted gifts from the right to their own.
@6:08 is what it must be like living in a bubble. I'm sure the victims feel warm a fuzzy with your words, especially the one who got raped at the Bethesda library.
Scientific American has departed ways with science.
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2023/01/08/scientific-american-continues-its-departure-from-science-and-descent-into-illiberal-politics/
@ 3:53 The Post still thinks the laptop was Russian collusion so nice try with media that has no idea what the truth looks like. Regarding busses, there is is conveyance called roads which busses can travel on without being restricted to built-in rail lines but perhaps it's beneath you to use a Metrobus. Operating as a shill for bad governance, you took the bait for The Peninsula project which even the most generous now can see what a complete failure it is but here you are. Like California high-speed rail, there isn't a bad project the left won't support and tout as a success despite obvious facts otherwise.
https://fortune.com/article/who-has-donated-trump-white-house-ballroom/
@7:28 Sit this one out junior, adults are arguing.
Go through the Federal Transit Administration database. good examples are the Twin Cities in MN, Seattle & Portland where crime on the light-rail far outpace the national average in addition to property crime like stolen copper effectively severing the southern portion of the Portland light-rail system. These are the highlights but worse is that none of these systems survive without constant public infusion of money.
The point is that your bosses refuse to enforce laws already on the books and wishing that light-rail will make everything better without a commensurate increase in actual law enforcement is just a waste of taxpayer dollars but that's what the left does so well.
@7:18/7:19 Don't go away mad, just go away. Insert some of the only words you've learned: "sweaty/bro/projection/dogwhistle" Even The Quality Learing Center in MN could probably teach you more.
Who said anything about race? Most seem just worried about crime and wish to stop inviting it. Why would you invoke race?
@11:23 you're not very good at this. You know that, right?
@10:45 and as expected, the cultist has no response LMAO
https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/economics-of-urban-light-rail-CH.pdf
Yeah, thanks to leftists who FAFO. Hope they get 10-years for each offense.
When the whole thing goes south and crime spikes and the quality of life degrades further, will the apologists say "I was wrong"? Will they? Not a snowballs chance.
3:06 - I can envision a Bethesda "Takeover" of hundreds of 'out of towners'. Maybe it will become a weekly thing. How will that make residents feel? 8:51 way up top will shrug his shoulders and scratch the dirt with the point of his shoe. Will never admit he was wrong.
Algae and sunlight is a leftist plot!
@12:55 we know what they mean. They’re not fooling anyone
@1:32 truth stings sometimes. Have a good day!
Reading is fundamental but 1:32 skipped that along with comprehension.
No one ever mentions people riding the Purple Line from Bethesda to Silver Spring and beyond (like University of Maryland). Silver Spring has a unique set of things to do like the Fillmore that aren't in Bethesda.
This is because the left always uses strawman arguments. Look at the true racists who want everything judged by color.
Yes. The response to news is that is is fake news. You still have not addressed the J2 busses not going to College Park, not even New Carrollton. You have no metrics on what is deemed a success or failure. And you listed donors... Which I agree exists, but they are not footing the bill.
So like A said, you really had no response.
Regardless of your drivel, the Purple Line is happening and I am for it and am happy with living in Bethesda.
You can go ahead and stew in your own misery, hate where you live, and the members of your community.
Really sounds like you a you problem.
@8:13 At this point it really doesn't matter as the money has been spent. You and A should be dating and together you might come up with two brain cells that connect the dots about crime, blue state policies running taxpayers out of MD and that spending money that you don't have isn't such a good idea. I get that reading dry data from the FTA isn't as easy as the Post but at least there is factual data there. You really do prove that Democracy does Die in Darkness.
Where will you be when the PL creates more crime and never sees sustainable ridership without large taxpayer dollars infusion? On to the next "big" thing because the left never admits failure and says "next time it will work". That's what should be your epitaph.
@8:10 you tried.
@5:43 you tried. :(
@3:23 dogwhistle
@3:46 dogwhistle
No A, I think you're the deep seated racist, you make it the defining characteristic vs, merely being just the crime and criminal.
The PL can be used for Bethesda/Silver Spring area college students who could live at home, and ride the train to the University of Maryland, and avoid the cost of student housing and meals. Room and board costs are a large part of an education. Five PL stops at the University will be heavily used by students, faculty, and employees at no cost. Requiring less commuter student parking lots will free up land for more academic and recreational uses.
Frankly I can’t think of another university in the world that has a light rail system that is free to use for students, faculty and staff. Quite a perk to become a Terrapin!
@3:23: Yes, you're right. I am ready for the next big thing that blue state policies are going to spend money on. We're going to need to keep paying those taxes though. Thank you for your generosity!
Not like there isn't a free shuttle from SS already.
Only one problem is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money and MD has been hemorrhaging actual taxpayers for Illegals on entitlements. What a strategy!
"I feel", "I also believe", "in my opinion" are all the trademarks of an argument lost because one refuses to do the work necessary to prove their hypothesis. The council should hire better staff with at least some research skills but perhaps that's their plan and it's good enough for the lowest common denominator consumer like A.
@8:27: That is why the government can borrow money! $1.78 trillion federal budget deficit for 2025. Projected to be $1.9 trillion for 2026! Our national debt is more than our GDP. Mortgaging the future to pay for today!
@8:37: Whoopee doo, you won an argument on a comments thread of a local blog. Money still spent in ways that you do not approve of. And will still be spent in a way that you do not approve of. So who really won?
Bring the criminals in! Developers underwriting residential rentals on Bethesda at $50 per square feet needs to get knee capped. That will teach the developers from wanting to build in Bethesda and the Council for accommodating. I cannot wait for housing prices to dip! Good thing the commenters here know better than real estate developers investing hundreds of millions of dollars.
Right, I agree. Let's continue to make it harder for students to get higher education. Constraining them through rising tuition costs and archaic accessibility is not enough. Then future is now, forget children, they do not deserve it unless they are entitled!
This is why the only public transportation to have access to Georgetown is the bus! We need to keep the people who cannot afford to be here out of Bethesda! Of course we will let those people come to work for minimum wage. Correction, we want them to come work in Bethesda for less than minimum wage. But that is where we draw the line!
Yes FAFO. Good thing we spent all that money on the war in Iran to not move the needle. But those energy and volatility traders made a killing. Great way to circumvent insider trading regulations!
@5:03: What kind of watch are we talking about? Because most criminals I know have watches I cannot afford. You know, those hooligans getting iced out and everything.
@9:21 you use certain words but have no idea what they mean.
It will be a much quicker trip using the PL, than a regular business traffic from Bethesda or Silver Spring. Of course this is not a prime goal of the PL, but could certainly be very helpful for many.
@1:36 I agree that it really doesn't make any difference whatsoever but in this case, the one most of us are disgusted with is an employee of the council with the runner up, A, a federal grifter working against the best interests of the citizens.
The elections yesterday in NY is going to be a true lesson in stupidity which I think will be an excellent example of liberal self-destruction. We'll all get to watch NY fast-tracked into chaos and I for one will be grabbing the popcorn until Moore decides to replicate it.
@1:49 you guys are teaching these children that spending money you don't have is a good long term plan. Higher education should be just that. Taking a 300K loan for a degree in 14th century French literature or something similar like gender studies makes no sense and those loans should never be forgiven.
@12:54 "pointing out others racism makes you racist" LOOOOL omg I actually just laughed out loud. Adorable try though :)
@3:36 projection
@6:46 jealousy doesn't look good on you. You're welcome for my service :)
As an aside, A, I'd like you to explain the well documented fact that 'light skinned Blacks' are rather prejudiced towards 'darker skinned Blacks?' What's that all about? I bet this gets buried herein.
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